They very well might be “the devil,” but that doesn’t mean we don’t want them to drive safer.

The Post’s front page this morning featured a story about webcams which are being placed into Maryland cars as part of a program designed to study the driving habits of teenagers. The technology is actually quite intelligent: a webcam saves 20 seconds of video whenever the car makes an odd movement, for instance, a sharp turn, or a rapid change in G-forces. The system then electronically forwards those mini-videos to a company, who then adds tips for the young drivers and sends it to the family.

Of course, the teenagers involved aren’t exactly thrilled about the project. Many of them turn into privacy law scholars when initially asked about the system – but when they review massive oversights like not wearing a seatbelt, they tend to agree that it helps them.

The report quotes Daniel McGehe, a researcher at the University of Iowa and creator of the program, who believes that “really, the single most dangerous thing we let our children do is drive a car.” Admittedly, after watching the video (see above) that washingtonpost.com added to the online version of the report, well, we can’t really argue with him.

Of course, the video doesn’t include anything graphic; but if you were in a car accident at this age – like this writer was – well, you’ll probably have a couple of not-so-fun flashbacks. The incredible amount of teenage fatalities in Maryland – 112 in total last year – make us feel pretty lucky that we managed to get out of our incident unscathed.